greentechZONE Products for the week of May 12, 2003
IST Says....
Doing The Hand Jive - Lee Goldberg field-tests IST's Sidewinder hand-cranked cell phone charger
SideWinder hand generator is the first battery-free, pocket-sized cell phone charger. It provides as much (if not more) power as your plug-in wall charger, weighs just over 2 ounces and fits in the palm of your hand. It has a built-in super capacitor, features a voltage regulation system and requires no alternate power source. Given the current state of affairs in our country, I think the product is quite timely.
 SideWinder is a patented technology developed by Innovative Solutions and Technologies (IST) based in Bozeman, Montana. We are a leading design and engineering company whose focus is to harness new technology to solve familiar, everyday problems with innovative, simple-to-use, practical products. For convenience, emergencies, or just peace of mind, the SideWinder can provide all the talk time you need. To use, plug the interface cable into your phone's charge port and crank the generator. Two minutes with the generator, yields up to six minutes of talk time and even more standby time. Crank the generator while using the phone, and talk indefinitely. Unlike some solutions, its patented design makes it impossible to damage a cell phone battery.
As a bonus, it features a built-in LED flashlight for anytime a little extra light is needed. Get five minutes of light from 30 seconds of cranking. SideWinder is ergonomically designed to crank in either direction for left- and right-handed users.
IST is in the development stage of additional products, several of which will accompany the SideWinder as an attachment. The follow-up products to the SideWinder anticipated at present include a Pocket PC adapter, fire starter, water purifier, and AM/FM radio - all of which will utilize SLED and supercap technology.
The SideWinder retails for $24.95 and supports popular phones from Motorola, Nokia, Ericsson, Samsung, Lucky Goldstar (LG), Qualcomm, Kyocera and Audiovox.
For further information, or to purchase a Sidewinder unit, contact:
Innovative Solutions & Technologies
2304 North 7th Avenue, Suite C4
Bozeman, MT 59715 (406) 522-9300 www.sidewindercharger.com
EN-Genius Says...
Is the world ready for hand-cranked electronic devices? Innovative Solutions and Technologies (IST) seems to think so, and has introduced a clever little generator set intended to boost a flagging charge on your cell phone battery. While not precisely a "green" application a hand generator such as this could have many applications that actually replaced batteries. Besides, I was intrigued by the idea and agreed to give the unit a field test.
The Sidewinder arrived and seemed to work as advertised. The folding hand crank flips open and a short adapter cable hooks you up to whatever cell phone you have. The unit's embedded super-capacitor really does store enough energy from 30 seconds of moderate-level spinning to run the white LED that is embedded in the side of the unit for about 5 minutes. It's not a substitute for the mini-Mag Lite I usually carry, but the LED does deliver enough light to read a small area of a roadmap or give you a rough sense of what's in front of you in a completely dark room.
When connected to my cell phone the resistance I felt on the crank increased substantially. Sadly, time did not permit me to break open the cable and measure the current being delivered, but the cell phone's display did indicate that it was taking a charge.
When folded, the Sidewinder is a compact little device that sits in the palm of your hand. This is a good thing, since most of my field test involved carrying the unit around in the bottom of the small shoulder bag that I use to hold my wallet, cell phone and tools of my trade. The unit's big test came one evening on my last press tour when a day of heavy use brought the charge on my cell phone down to the last two bars on the charge meter. With my charger back in my hotel room and several more important calls to receive, it looked like I'd be missing at least one call until I remembered the Sidewinder.
While waiting for a bus to get me to my next appointment, I fished the Sidewinder from the bottom of my shoulder bag and hooked it up to my cell phone. Holding both things in my hands was awkward, so I put the phone in my pants pocket and began to crank away. Other than the fact that it does take a serious effort to affect your phone's charge appreciably, about the only drawback I could find with this product was the potential for embarrassment. Standing at the bus stop cranking frantically on a device whose feed wire led to my pants pocket drew some pretty strange looks from passers-by. After several such embarrassing encounters, I finally took my phone out of my pocket and lay it out in plain sight.
My efforts were rewarded, however, and I was able to take several short calls that would have otherwise killed the battery. Anticipating the need to make a few more calls I decided to see how much I could actually recharge the battery. Now that I was actually using the thing I discovered several things the quick test did not reveal.
Perhaps most important, I learned that you really have to crank the Sidewinder a long time to see any results. Because I did not get the chance to measure the current flows or calculate charge levels, I am not sure whether Sidewinder's claims of adding five or six minutes talk time with a two-minute crank or real or not. All I know is that it took a bit over 15 minutes of diligent cranking to raise my charge indicator a single bar. During that time the charger would occasionally stop charging, and bring the fact to my attention by the reduced tension on the crank handle. Sometimes I could coax the phone to start charging again by slowing my cranking, and sometimes it required stopping, unplugging and re-plugging the unit and trying again. I have no explanation for how or why this happened, other than some odd interaction with the phone's charging circuitry. For the most part, however, the unit worked quite well, except for the fact that it became a bit uncomfortable to operate for an extended period of time. While the case is already curved the next generation of Sidewinders would do well to have a bit more ergonomics applied to its design.
All things considered the Sidewinder is a useful tool for those of us who spend too much time on the road and are hopelessly addicted to cell phones. And while it's not precisely a "green" device in its current application, it could be considered an "appropriate technology", which could be used to power radios, small pieces of electronic or medical equipment, or other devices in areas where batteries are expensive or unavailable. Some of the simpler devices are already under development by IST (see the manufacturer's announcement above), and I expect that this power supply will prove useful to designers of small electronic products intended for use in remote areas. Hopefully IST will also introduce a larger version of its muscle-powered generator for more energy-hungry applications.
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